Naturally, hearing a name as long as The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die will spark your interest no matter where you read or hear it. I was aware of the band, but never gave them a true listen until a friend of mine pointed out a tour poster of theirs out front of Will’s Pub back in May, and after listening to their recent release Whenever, If Ever, I decided that I had to witness this band live. After all the tickets were a cheap $7, and boy was it worth it. The intimate setting Will’s Pub is known for, made my first time seeing TWIABPAIANLATD a memorable experience.

There were five bands on the bill this night, the first being local three-piece Among Giants. After spending a good 10 to 15 minutes sound checking, the band began to play. The music reminded me a lot of one of my favorite band Balance and Composure, vocally at least. The vocals were very raw, mixing clean vocals with screams. The most memorable thing about the music here was the many stop/starts in the choruses. Musically, they were very heavy, energetic and punk sounding. While I didn’t catch the names of any of the songs that were played, I did notice that the majority of their set was upcoming new material. Overall, I was impressed and will look forward to hearing from them again.

Up next was You, Me, and Everyone We Know, a band who I had no idea was playing until a few days prior to the show. After listening to their music, I was under the assumption that this was a full band and was not expecting an acoustic set. Ben Liebsch made the audience aware of why exactly this was a solo acoustic set: his whole band left after they were made aware of Liebsch’s problem with alcohol (he was dipping into the bands money to fund this problem). But the lack of drums and bass were definitely made up for by the audience cheering along to the songs, Liebsch’s vocal often held out higher and longer notes than the crowd, jokes thrown in between verses and choruses, and his moving around the stage. He made comments about a lot of instrumental parts that “would sound a lot cooler with a full band”, but honestly I enjoyed the entire set. He mentioned that he will be playing with a full band live again soon, which I am pretty excited to see.

The transition from You, Me, and Everyone We Know to Pity Sex was a short one. I was immediately entranced by the fact that the noisy, lo-fi sounds they have been made known for translated perfectly to the live setting. Heavily distorted, fuzzy guitars did a lot to remind me of bands such as Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr (the band keeps their influences close, seeing as the lead guitarist and vocalist was wearing a Sonic Youth tee). The harmonized vocals between the lead and rhythm guitarists, and melodic guitar chords likely made this bands sound highly nostalgic for many audience members.

The mathy emo duo Dads was next.The duo had an interesting stage set up. The drum set was placed on the edge of the right side of the stage, facing the guitarist, allowing for me to witness the rhythmic, high-energy madness that would ensue. I’m surprised that multiple drum sticks were not broken. Man did Dads pack a punch! With the audience being so close to the drum set, and the guitarist using what looked like three amplifiers, there was no doubt heads were blown apart by the end of their set, including mine. Before the set, the drummer mentioned that he wanted to hear some singing and see some movement, and he definitely got what he asked for. When the show began I was standing towards the middle of the floor, and by the time Dads played I was jammed next to the monitor on the extreme right side of the stage, allowing my excellent view of the drummer. These guys brought the house down.

Finally, The World is a Beautiful Place took the stage. After an extensive sound check (which makes sense given that all eight members were performing, a rather funny sight to see given the small size of the stage), the band began to play the loudest set of the entire night.

Everything I love them for was present and then some: the soundscapes and explosions of noise made were one-hundred times more moving and ear splitting live, the synth lit up many of the songs as well. I was also surprised to see the trumpet used on some of the songs.

The band played a good chunk of songs from their newest debut LP, “Gig Life”, “Getting Sodas”, and “You Will Never Go To Space”. Also played were some songs from Are Here To Help, including “I Will Be Okay. Everything”. The exchange between screaming vocals, exploding guitars, bass, drums, and synthesizers on this song made it the highlight of the night by far.

If you ever have the chance to see TWIABPAIANLATD live, I recommend you do so, because it’s an experience you won’t soon forget.